Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS

Our show begins by discussing why Fintechs and Banks are duelling for talent, as financial technology startups go in hiring overdrive- thus butting heads with the incumbents for the very best candidates. Are banks worried about losing out on top rate talent? Next we explore some pretty damning stats, as the U.S. big four retail banks dealt with almost 20% increase in credit card losses last year. Financial crash anybody? The team get their bear masks on and discuss how growing credit card debts in individuals could be increasingly concerning for incumbents and the economy in general. Staying with empty bank accounts....Wells Fargo apologise for a a glitch that emptied out bank accounts. According to reports, a glitch caused online bill payments to be processed twice which led to some customers with very unhealthy bank balances. Moving across the world, Australia plan to introduce industry-wide platform for real-time payments called the NPP (New Payments Platform). The infrastructure will allow payments between business accounts and customers at different financial institutions in Australia. Next and staying the the outback, Westpac brings back transactions via text messages. Westpac's new iMessage shortcut will allow customers to make payments. Is this secure? Our team discuss whether or not customers will trust payments via iMessage and whether or not anyone even uses the service anymore! On to technology, Google and Tencent team up agreeing to share patents in a global tech alliance. The 2nd and 5th large companies in the world have teamed up and this should allow Google to rebuild its presence in China. Partnerships continued, Transferwise and Flinks partner up in Canada-which will facilitate instant account verification and will act as the link between Transferwise and the Canadian banking world. We wouldn't want to bring you an episode without some regulatory news and to give you your fix on today's Fintech Insider news show, we discuss 'seven key facts about PSD2 could cause some head scratching'. Our panel run through this story and discuss how some of these could be interpreted. Finally, the man who ordered £3,000 worth of Bitcoin gear online was furious when he received a Boss Baby DVD. Think it's safe to say he was not impressed, and the team discuss whether or not the film itself is worth it? Finally 2.0, 'Grumpy Cat' wins a $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit. Grumpy Cat Limited sued the owners of coffee company Grenade for exceeding an agreement over the cat's image. You can imagine the cat's owners were 'feline' great after that mega payout! We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook. Special Guests: Patrick Lane and Sophie Winwood.Links: Banks and Fintechs Are Duelling In a ‘War For Talent’ Business schools have a problem with fintech What is Fintech? And how to build a career in Fintech U.S. Banks Suffer from Big Credit Card Losses Wells Fargo apologizes for glitch that emptied out some bank accounts Australia to introduce industry-wide New Payments Platform for real-time payments Westpac brings bank transacting to text messaging Google, Tencent Agree to Share Patents in Global Tech Alliance Transferwise partners with Flinks to power its instant account verification process Seven key facts about PSD2 that could cause some head scratching Man who ordered £3,000 Bitcoin gear online furious after being sent Boss Baby DVD instead Grumpy Cat wins $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit - BBC News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many financial services companies are trying to build from the ground up, creating new banking systems or products that are more in line with creating an efficient and customer centric front end. Avoka on the other hand, are creating acquisition products that work in tandem with core banking systems. Chief Experience Officer Derek Corcoran talks us through how Avoka are creating a platform for better customer experience. Indeed, opening current accounts and signing up for a credit card can be tedious, and it's definitely not mobile friendly. Instead of going through 30 layers of customer on boarding that most users fail to do all in one go, Derek discusses how their business model centres around the 'one and done' instantaneous form submission that makes sign-ups all so simple. Not only is their process faster and more convenient, there's also an added element of security- photo ID recognition means users take photos of their driving licences or passports making the sign-up faster and safer. They handle this transaction layer, until it's ready to be delivered to core banking layer. The culture at Avoka is 'we are going to be successful by making our clients successful', and indeed Derek talks about a meticulous iteration process of creating product after product that aims to satisfy their clients as much as possible, and in turn satisfy the customers they are trying to bring on board. Data analytics are central to these iterations, creating analytics engines which show Avoka where in the application flow the customer is lost. This is imperative to the evolution of their products but also the specificity to each client- they can use this data to show banks exactly what they're missing, and exactly how they can improve upon that. We also discuss Derek's unique role and job title at the company and what being a 'Chief Experience Officer' actually means. He splits his role into 3 parts,The first is of which is thought leadership around this space, Looking at experiences that banks are putting in to the market, to understand who is doing well. The second component is product development, by analysing customer needs and what other platforms/products are succeeding, Derek also helps in terms of innovation. Finally, the third component is client strategy and relations, they have 3 of the 10 top global banks using their platforms so it's key these relationships are managed accordingly to maintain integrity and credibility to Avoka. We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook. Special Guest: Derek Corcoran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So what is an investment platform? According to our panel it's much like a supermarket- you go in and buy lots of things, however you're also doing all the cooking! We discuss how robo advisors can disrupt investment platforms, by scaling the 'do it for you' investment model through technology, and how this interesting supermarket analogy gets altered due to it. We then move on to Millennial wealth and investment, exploring how newer generations don't have the benefit of buying property and seeing prices skyrocket, whilst also being saddled with debt as they begin their working lives. But how does a generation that has grown up with social media, a generation that is exposed to instant gratification so often- grow to understand the non-immediacy of investment? Or is this the responsibility of investment platforms- does this area need to be more accessible? Mitigating the jargon and bridging that financial literacy gap is imperative, but could governments rather than financial isntitutions be the answer in educating? But is the challenge with long term investment an economic one rather than educational-inflation currently sitting at 3% means that many cash ISA's aren't really working. To quote our guest Jon Willis: "you may as well keep your cash under your mattress" and this is very much the view financially literate millennials take- citing the lack of excitement a reason for disinterest, hence- Bitcoin. So how do we make it more accessible? Since millennials don't trust banks, as they have grown up with other brands and services that this generation of users are comfortable with e.g Facebook and Amazon. Is it through gamification? Is that the best way to bridge this literacy gap and make investment more accessible? Our wonderful guests dive deep into this subject and how the challenge posed to investment platforms can be answered. We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Adam French, Jon Willis, Pete Townsend, and Shaun Port.Links: Tencent gets a licence to sell mutual funds to WeChat’s 1 billion users in China Tencent to sell mutual funds to ‘WeChat’ users - Citywire Digital asset management and crypto funds - how has the model changed? - 11:FS BNP Paribas Asset Management completes fund transaction blockchain... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David, Jason and Simon were joined by Chris Skinner and Monty Munford for this week's news show from a pub in Bermondsey, complete with pints and pie - the full British pub experience. We’re now past “deadline day” so naturally our first batch of stories concerned Open Banking and what the banking landscape looks like so far in the wake of PSD2 becoming law on 13th January. The guys chat about the impact the media has had on people's perception of open banking and potentially on customer adoption of it. They also touch on how Nationwide is the latest big bank to ask for an extension to meet the PSD2 deadline, and is meeting the deadline necessarily in correlation with being "good"? Staying on the theme of open banking they also talk through Monzo's interim API that they released in conjunction with the PSD2 deadline, and reflect on our interview with Tom Blomfield where he contested that Monzo are potentially better placed that the GAFA companies to take on Alibaba and build the financial control centre for the West. Speaking of Alibaba, the guys muse through their latest developments and the willingness of the Chinese government to support the Eastern tech giants in a way that regulators and governments are yet to do in the West. This leads to a lot of philosophising from all sides on the perpetual East vs West conundrum and who is currently winning? Moving on to arguably the biggest story of the week, the guys discuss the so-called "Crypto blood bath", as all cryptocurrency prices tumbled and no one really knows why the price tumbled for as far as it did for as long as did, or why it happened now. Following on from Business Insider's thoughts on why the prices have fallen so quickly, the team give their predictions, stay tuned to see who is right! Other notable stories of the week include Revolut's foray into travel insurance, Xinja's impressive fund raising, and U2's investment fund getting involved in fintech - could it be a Beautiful Day or maybe he Still Hasn't Found What He's Looking For. We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Chris Skinner and Monty Munford.Links: Open Banking: Will Facebook, Google, and Amazon get into finance? Nationwide delays Open Banking launch Monzo launches their interim API for Open Banking Tom Blomfield on Monzo's 1000% growth and taking on the tech giants - 11:FS Alibaba and Microsoft AI beat human scores on Stanford reading test Bitcoin sinks below $10,000 in cryptocurrencies retreat What caused January's bitcoin and cryptocurrency market crash - Business Insider Revolut now lets you automatically buy travel insurance based on your phone’s location Xinja raises $500,000 in less than a day U2 Frontman Bono Directs Investment Fund into FinTech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OakNorth isn't perhaps the most high profile Challenger bank in the UK, solving a real problem by serving the 'missing middle' who aren't being served well by existing lenders. Their business began by exploring how they can actually solve this issue, rather than how they could become a great bank- Rishi citing this particular outlook as one of the reasons OakNorth has seen success. Looking at OakNorth's social impact, their data shows that they've added about 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs through their lending as well as about 2,500 homes. Now perhaps some of these people may not have had a chance if it wasn't for OakNorth's human element. Their lending committee actually analyses the entrepreneurs behind the projects, rather than using a 'computer says no approach.' Rishi clearly feels OakNorth are still in infancy when looking at their future roadmap, he states that they want to vastly expand the business as they believe they can solve problems in multiple markets. The future certainly seems bright for this challenger bank and their social impact is certainly impressive! We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guest: Rishi Khosla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We bring you the second part of our special wealth series, as we concentrate on asset management trends and how 2018 will impact the investments market. First, our panel discuss how evolving demands from varying types of customer in the asset management industry are challenging legacy ideas. How does millennial inheritance impact their thinking? And do longer life spans require asset managers to explore different avenues to meet customer needs? Next we move on to discuss the value chain, more specifically distribution, portfolio & management risk, middle & back office and finally 3'rd parties. It wouldn't be an 11:FS podcast if we didn't discuss Fintech to some extent, and the team dissect various trends that are leading indicators of what to come. How could Tech giants become disruptors in this space? Robo-advisory platforms have become more and more prevalent but is there a limit to how far they can go? Most data shows that many consumers are more comfortable with human elements in this business model, but could the millennial generation change this? The blockchain hype just won't go away, and rightfully so, as we discuss whether or not blockchain could become part of the infrastructure that future asset management business models are built upon? AI is another regularly discussed topic in this space, is it all hype? Or is there something there in the technology that asset managers could use to create a better financial product for their customers. We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Chris Mills, Pete Townsend, and Zeynep Meric-Smith.Links: Millennials to secure 'inheritance boom' Legg Mason chief warns of ‘disruptive’ period for asset managers Tencent gets a licence to sell mutual funds to WeChat’s 1 billion users in China Vanguard Taps Symbiont's Private Blockchain for Index Fund Data Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First up on today's news show, the FCA bans BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) across the the entire UK finance sector. Whilst regulation is on the tip of everyone's tongue, cryptocurrencies managed to sneak their way onto the show once more as Kodak launched KODAKcoin, boosting stock prices an outrageous 44%. From one major announcement to another, tech giant Tencent gets a licence to sell mutual funds to WeChat's 1 billion users in China. Moving on, TransferWise is quietly launching its "borderless" debit cards to 1,000 customers, with a full rollout coming later in the year. We discuss what the future of borderless payments could look like and how this brings the company in closer competition with Revolut. Our next story comes from a report written by FleishmanHillard named 'The Fads, The Fears and the Future' which details the most overhyped technologies and trends in 2017. Simon Taylor interviews Claudia Bate the author, where they discuss the report at length including the methodology behind the statistics and upcoming regulation. Our last episode was named 'Tis The Season of Open Banking and the subject just won't go away. The Guardian published an article which asks whether open banking is a 'radical shake-up, or threat to your private data?' and our panel explore this at length. Do people know where their data is going? Our panel explore whether or not consumers actually need to know how their data is being used so long as it creates a better product for them. Next, we discuss Brexit's impact on the Fintech space and whether or not cynics have been proven wrong. Uncertainty has been prevalent over Brexit particularly in finance and this is something dissected during this episode. Software-only Wealthfront were also in the news as they raised $75 million as they aim to target millennials. We discuss who the term 'millennial' refers to and also what the traditional demographic usually is. We break down 'Meltdown and Spectre' (scary headline for a financial services story), a bug that could be used to compromise computer chips creating security vulnerabilities, what is being done to fix it and how it could impact legacy systems. On the brighter side of things, more than £300m of 'forgotten' money is to be stripped from bank accounts and given to charities and people in debt instead. Robin Hood springs to mind and the team details whether or not this is the right way of dealing with the dormant money. Finally, 'fake cannabis' drives record number of Swiss start-ups. Are we moving from 'Cash & Cocaine' to 'Bitcoin & Weed'? We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Charlie Wood, Pete Townsend, and Sarah Kocianski.Links: FCA 'gold-plates' EU rule, bans BYOD across entire UK finance sector Kodak stock is up 44% after announcing it's launching a cryptocurrency called KODAKCoin Tencent gets a licence to sell mutual funds to WeChat’s 1 billion users in China TransferWise launches borderless accounts & debit card FinTech in 2018: The Fads, the Fears and the Future ‘Open banking’: radical shake-up, or a threat to your private data? Brexit impact on venture capital investment into UK fintechs Software-only Wealthfront raises $75 million What bankers need to know about Meltdown, Spectre chip flaws More than £300m of 'forgotten' money to be stripped from bank accounts and given to charities and people in debt instead Fintech and fake cannabis drive record number of Swiss start-ups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From pre-paid card to fully fledged Current Account, Tom Blomfield details the journey of UK challenger bank Monzo with great enthusiasm and vibrance. Tom talks our host Simon Taylor through Monzo's viral growth and how their marketing team has managed to grow the company 1000% in the last year alone, on a very limited budget. 'I don't think we're a million miles away from the mainstream' is a great quote and highlights the ambition of the challenger bank, as we discuss Monzo's roadmap for the future. Regulation has been a hot topic to kick off 2018 and so you won't be surprised that PSD2 is much discussed throughout the interview. Indeed Tom gives his opinions on how large banks and open banking will be impacted by the regulation. Murmurs of both a Monzo IPO and potential acquisition have been constant throughout 2017, and Tom's admirable attitude that an acquisition "would feel like failure" shows just how dedicated the Monzo team is to creating a better banking product for its customers. He takes responsibility for the IPO rumours saying that it was down to a copywriting indiscretion, however also states a future IPO is possible. This episode is sponsored by Toptal, an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, and finance experts in the world. To find out more, visit Toptal.com. We hope you enjoy the show - spread the word, tell your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guest: Tom Blomfield. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first of our three-part series on investments, Simon Taylor is joined by special guests Joe Parkin, Gemma Godfrey, Phil Smith, Olivia Vinden & Gareth Johnson. We kicked things off by asking our panel what IS wealth management? How does it differ from asset management and what does the future of the industry look like? Our guests have a wealth of experience (pun intended) in this industry, and tried to dissect the role of the wealth manager and how technological evolutions will transform this space. We discuss whether or not digitisation of the role would to some extent mitigate the human element behind wealth management, and how exactly this will alter the customer relationship. DLT, Machine learning and AI are all buzzwords, but how could these growing areas of innovation change wealth management? How will data, in tandem with these technologies successfully make wealth management for more accessible to the consumer? The panel discuss how these areas could benefit the industry, offering some very interesting insights. Finally, we explore how changing demographics - both managers and customers - alter the approach to wealth management? It's incredible to think that many children born today, will live close the age of 100. This changes the approach from a wealth management point of view, but also increases the range of people who will understand future technologies that will have a vital role to play in this area. Thanks for listening! Spread the word, tell all your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Gareth Johnson, Gemma Godfrey, Joe Parkin, Olivia Vinden, and Phil Smith.Links:Forget Banks, in 2018 you will pay through Amazon and Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First up on today's show, Alibaba's Ant Financial has abandoned a $1.2bn takeover of MoneyGram. So what were the US regulator's concerns over national security and personal data. Continuing the regulatory theme, we explore open banking and traditional banking. The guys discuss why open banking might threaten the survival of traditional banks. Plus, new research suggests that consumer awareness of open banking is at a major low, amidst suggestions that in 2018 you'll pay through Amazon and Facebook. Next, we ask what is MiFID II and how will it increase transparency and bolster investor protection? The guys discuss why the credit card fees ban has backfired, and why consumers face new 'service charges' and higher prices. Is it right that by 'fat-cat Thursday', top bosses' pay after just three days overtakes workers' average annual salary? P2P payments are back, so is it true that Apple Pay Cash won't be the death of Venmo? And if not, could Zelle do it? And in the world of banking and savings apps, the guys explore news that Thomas Cook is planning a banking app, plus the consequences of news that savings app Folio has gone under. After a very relevant tweet, we return to a story from Ep. 141. The future will be tokenised, with an update on the Chinese government's plans to give every citizen a score based on their trustworthiness. So does this sound like a great endorsement of your behaviour or an Orwellian intrusion? Let us know your thoughts @FintechInsiders. In the last story for this week's news, why psychedelic stickers are blowing AI minds. We think these might become quite popular in the near future... And finally on today's show, we offer our predictions for 2018. Tune in to hear the team's thoughts on open banking, SMEs and anticipatory design, and check out our 2018 predictions blog. Thanks for listening! Spread the word, tell all your friends and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts@11fs.com or on Twitter @FintechInsiders and follow us on Facebook.Special Guests: Andra Sonea and Benedict Shegog.Links: Alibaba's Ant Financial abandons $1.2bn MoneyGram takeover as US authorities refuse to back deal Why new rules threaten the survival of traditional banks Consumer awareness of Open Banking at major low, spelling traditional banking demise Forget Banks, in 2018 you will pay through Amazon and Facebook What is MiFID II, Europe's sweeping financial regulations, which begin today? Credit card fees ban backfires as consumers face new 'service charges' and higher prices 'Fat cat Thursday' as top bosses' pay overtakes UK workers' - BBC News Apple Pay Cash won't be the death of Venmo but I found the little-known alternative that will Thomas Cook plans banking app Exclusive: Savings app Folio goes under Emily Rauhala on Twitter: "I'm on the Tianjin to Beijing train and the automated announcement just warned us that breaking train rules will hurt our personal credit sc… https://t.co/TtOCbxN96h" The Chinese government wants to give every citizen a score based on their trustworthiness These psychedelic stickers blow AI minds Our 2018 Predictions - 11:FS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices